Savoy Hotel (Revisited)

I was writing about the Brandy Melba earlier--a drink named after a recipe at the Savoy Hotel--and I recalled that I wanted to take another try at the Savoy Hotel layered cocktail. I have dark creme de cacao, which is necessary for building the heavy sugar bottom layer. Benedictine is less sweet and can sit on top of it.

Martell single distillery cognac is dry and clean tasting, but it isn't much stronger than Benedictine. A lot of care is necessary with this final layer. You really have to be careful. Use a half teaspoon held upside down and placed inside the second layer to do this right. Then pour the cognac down the handle so it spreads out onto the Benedictine. It also helps to up the quantity of the alcohol to make the layers more visible.

• 3/4 oz. dark creme de cacao
• 3/4 oz. Benedictine
• 3/4 oz. brandy (cognac please)

Pour each liquor over a spoon into a pousse cafe glass, gently layering them in the order that they are listed.

Fifth Avenue

Another layered drink, the Fifth Avenue is a nice and easy Pousse-Cafe style cocktail that really would be nice with coffee.

The recipe calls for dark creme de cacao, but I used white because I wanted it to stand out against the layer of apricot brandy, which is also brown. This gives it a sort of candy-corn look, too!

• 1 1/2 oz. creme de cacao (white used)
• 1 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
• 3/4 oz. half-and-half

Pour each ingredient in the order given over the back of a spoon into a Pousse-Cafe glass so that each layor does not mix.

Chocolate Tier Cake

Just like a baker makes a tier cake, this cocktail is layered with a distinct flavor on each floor. You can really see the definition between these layers here because of a technique I perfected; pouring each ingredient down the back of a measuring spoon handle while the spoon rests in the bottom of the glass.

I again had to change the order in which the spirits are poured because I used half and half. I'm sure that the heavy cream that the recipe calls for will work whether floated on top or nestled in the middle because it is fatty and hot brandy will rise over it or lay beneath it. But I wanted to use dark creme de cacao and use the cream layer to help contrast two brown spirits.

• 1/4 oz. creme de cacao (dark used)
• 1/4 oz. heavy cream
• 1/4 oz. brandy

Pour each ingredient in the order given over the back of a spoon into a Pousse-Cafe glass so that each layer doesn't mix. 

Angel's Kiss / Angel's Delight

I got these lovely cordial glasses and have been using them to make these pretty drinks known as Pousse-Cafe. These drinks are very difficult to pour without having the layers mix, especially with certain liqueurs.That has required me to adjust the positioning of layers because the specific weights of liqueurs are different than those in the original recipe. Getting them out of order causes them to flip their positions and mix.

This post is a two-for-one because these drinks are both "Angel" drinks and Pousse-Cafe, which puts them on the same page of the New York Bartender's Guide.

First the Angel's Kiss (left). It begins with white creme de cacao. But sloe gin, which follows is lighter than even fatty half-and-half, it has to come third. Sloe gin is a blend of sloeberry liqueur and gin, so it tends to break up by the weight of its ingredients. You'll see it blend down into the cream and up into the brandy in the tall glass. So the recipes that follow take this into account.

Angel's Kiss

• 1/4 oz. creme de cacao
• 1/4 oz. half-and-half
• 1/4 oz. sloe gin
• 1/4 oz. brandy

Pour each ingredients in the order given over the back of a spoon into a Pousse-Cafe glass so that each ingredient forms a layer that does not mix.

Angel's Delight

• 1/4 oz. grenadine
• 1/4 oz. triple sec
• 1/4 oz. half and half
• 1/4 oz. sloe gin

Pour each ingredients in the order given over the back of a spoon into a Pousse-Cafe glass so that each ingredient forms a layer that does not mix.

Stars And Stripes

This is another Pousse-Cafe layered drink. It is actually one of the easier ones to do and I might recommend it as an introduction to making Pousse-Cafe. That is because the ingredients are all very different and tend to stack with the help of a half-teaspoon measuring spoon.

The problem I had is that the recipe is wrong, and I knew it before I started. To get a red-white-and-blue cocktail for Independence Day or President's day celebration, you need to have the cream in the middle. But cream is fatty and I already knew it was lighter than both other liqueurs that have so much sugar in them. So after trying and failing at the recipe, I did it again in the order shown below. This might make a better drink for Bastille day, but at least it works.

• 3/4  oz. Cherry Heering
• 3/4 oz. blue curacao
• 3/4 oz. half-and-half

Pour each layer carefully over the back of a measuring spoon into a Pousse-Cafe glass so that they remain on separate layers. Refrigerate for a half hour before serving.

Pousse-Cafe

This is the penultimate Pousse-Cafe recipe as listed in the New York Bartender's guide circa 1997. You have to be really patient with layering six ingredients, and you need a good Pousse-Cafe glass. Most narrow cordial or dessert wine glasses will work.

I was not patient, nor were my ingredients standard to 1997 liqueurs. My triple sec is way stronger than the budget triple sec that has a lot of sugar. As such, it absorbed some of the green creme de menthe above it and became green. Also, my creme de cacao was very close in sweetness to the grenadine and became orange. Now that I think about it, dark creme de cacao would have been better for visuals.

But what worked was the creme de menthe, the cream and brandy. And look, there's a clear stripe below the center that is the Luxardo maraschino liqueur refusing to budge.

For all this effort, it is a strange drink with no unifying flavor. Pousse-Cafe are all cocktails that have the failing of being all about the look and the skill--a pretty dessert drink--but they don't have the drinker's taste in cocktail in mine. Rather you are supposed to drink coffee and sip off each layer at a time to flavor each sip of coffee.

Pousse-Cafe was a thing of the 1890s that re-appeared again in the 1990s as the bar scene came up with outlandish and bad tasting drinks for several years before dying down again until the late 2000s.

• 1/2 oz. grenadine
• 1/2 oz. creme de cacao
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
• 1/2 oz. white curacao
• 1/2 oz. green creme de menthe
• 1/2 oz. half-and-half 
• 1/2 oz. brandy

Carefully pour each ingredient in the order they are shown over the back of a spoon into a Pousse-Cafe glass. Refrigerate for half and hour before serving.

Angel's Tit

A glance at the name, and you know that this rich cocktail belongs to the series of "breast"drinks like the Slippery Nipple and the Bosom Caresser. Take a look at the drink itself, and you see it is one of those layered drinks known as Pousse Cafe. It is designed to look like a nipple on the bottom with a creamy breast above it.

Difficulty with the specific weights of each liquor may determine the exact order you can put the ingredients. The recipe, though is mostly accurate in that it calls for white creme de cacao first because it is heavier, maraschino liqueur next because it is more alcoholic and less sugary, and half-and-half last because it is fatty and floats on top.

My maraschino liqueur is clear, so it is indistinguishable from white creme de cacao. I combined the creme de cacao with grenadine to make it visible and to give more of a nipple impression for the bottom of the glass.

(Now that I think of it, the maraschino cherry is probably intended to be the tip of the breast, so put it in the bottom of the glass, or do as I did with the grenadine and creme de cacao.)

• 1/4 oz. white creme de cacao (colored with grenadine if you wish)
• 1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur (Luxardo used)
• 1/4 oz. half-and-half
• maraschino cherry

Layer the ingredients in order they are listed by pouring over a spoon into a cordial glass. Refrigerate for a half hour before serving. Serve with a maraschino cherry.

B-52 / Pousse Cafe

Just killing time at the bar this week and playing with layering sweet liqueurs as a way to practice. The B-52 had its heyday during the mid-90s, I remember. It has all the ingredients that would make it popular, Kahlua, Bailey's and Grand Marnier. Come to think of it, why did it ever go out of style? Probably because bartenders got sick of making them. Then, of course, they were warm shots. Yuck.

Incidentally, while I was taking this photo, someone ordered a Bombay Sapphire up. So this B-52 had a Bombay door (as we used to call it when Bombay gin was consumed along with a B-52, not always by the same person.)

• 1 oz. Kaluah
• 1 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1 oz. Grand Marnier

Carefully pour over a spoon into a pousse cafe glass in the order given. 

Savoy Hotel

The Savoy Hotel's cocktail is a pousse cafe, a drink that uses the different viscosity of the liqueurs to stack them in a narrow glass with well defined layers. It didn't really work with my house made creme de cacao, however. The Benedictine was heavier and sank to the bottom. If you do have a creme de cacao that is dark, it should be heaviest, since Benedictine has more alcohol than creme de cacao (except for mine).

The problem with the drink is the look. If you are using dark creme de cacao, it really will look like a brown layer, not easily distinguishable from a brown liquor like brandy. Benedictine will make a slightly green layer between two brown rings, not pretty even it it is well made.

• 3/4 oz. dark creme de cacao
• 3/4 oz. Benedictine
• 3/4 oz. brandy (cognac please)

Pour each liquor over a spoon into a pousse cafe glass, gently layering them in the order that they are listed.

Hasty Cocktail

I wonder why I didn't make this drink earlier. Maybe its because each time I think about making it, I just go ahead and make a Martini. It is really close to a Martini with some fruity and spicy flavors. Pernod doesn't really show up here, just a nice bitterness to balance out the sweetness of the grenadine that does more than color the drink.

I used a rye gin like Commonwealth gin for this one. Not as much juniper in that as other gins, and it allows the flavor of vermouth to come out. The Hasty Cocktail is a small drink in proportions. It doesn't fill a Martini glass very well. I liked how it fit in a pousse cafe glass or cordial glass.

• 2 oz. gin (Commonwealth gin used)
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth (Mancino used)
• 3-5 dashes of Pernod
• 1 tsp. grenadine

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (cordial glass used).

Pousse L'Amour

Pousse Cafe are a strange concept for a layered mixed drink that uses liqueurs with different specific gravities. They were very popular between 1830 and 1860, and there was even a Pousse Cafe glass that was in fashion at the time that made layering easier. Pousse Cafe made a brief comeback in the mid nineties, more as a way for bartenders to show off their mixing skills than as a good way to enjoy spirits. I just got a Pousse Cafe glass that really shows the layers of the drink.

The recipe recommends putting egg yolk after maraschino liqueur--and I whipped the yolk rather than leave it whole, because you can't sip whole egg--but it turns out that Benedictine that goes in after the egg is heavier and so they changed places. The last layer is the lightest spirit, in this case Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royal. I'll list the ingredients in the order that works best, not the way the recipe I followed worked. That should prevent the egg yolk from sliding around.

• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
• 1/2 oz. Benedictine
• 1/2 oz. egg yolk (whipped)
• 1/2 oz. cognac (Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royal used)

Pour the ingredients into a narrow glass in the order given. Carefully pour over the back of a spoon to get a layered effect.